Seven retired federal judges from both political parties have joined dozens of Guantanamo Bay detainees in urging an appeals court to declare key parts of President Bush's new anti-terrorism law unconstitutional. The judges, in a rare court filing Wednesday, said stripping courts of the right to question how the military handles terrorism suspects "challenges the integrity of our judicial system" and effectively sanctions the use of torture. In their own court filings, lawyers for the detainees argued that the law is unconstitutional because it prevents people from challenging their detention in U.S. courts -- a right that attorneys said the framers of the Constitution never would have allowed to be stripped. That would be a good argument, if Americans cared about the rule of law or the Constitution. But as we have seen most have supported what is happening, so like Bush has said, the Constitution is just a God Dammed Piece of Paper, they must have agreed with him ... http://www.newsday.com

New countries have moved ahead of some Western democracies in the fifth annual Reporters Without Borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index, issued today, while the most repressive countries are still the same ones. “Unfortunately nothing has changed in the countries that are the worst predators of press freedom,” the organisation said, “and journalists in North Korea, Eritrea, Turkmenistan, Cuba, Burma and China are still risking their life or imprisonment for trying to keep us informed. These situations are extremely serious and it is urgent that leaders of these countries accept criticism and stop routinely cracking down on the media so harshly. "Each year new countries in less-developed parts of the world move up the Index to positions above some European countries or the United States. This is good news and shows once again that, even though very poor, countries can be very observant of freedom of expression. Meanwhile the steady erosion of press freedom in the United States, ...http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=639

A new month-long initiative to encourage Bosnians to hand in illegal weapons comes in to force on Sunday. Those handing over their small arms will be entered into a lottery, with prizes including motor scooters & kitchen appliances. Bosnia-Hercegovina is still awash with weapons left over from the Bosnian War of the early 1990s. Crime & gangland violence is often fuelled by shootings or hand-grenade attacks. The UN Development Programme says hundreds of thousands of illegal weapons are still in the country. Despite this illegality, it is still possible to find machine guns such as AK47s openly advertised for sale in newspapers. If these people are smart they will not hand in any weapons. A fully armed Population helps keep Governments in check. Remember you can not vote out a Police State, Police States need unarmed subjects to operate freely so when you hear the siren call to turn in your weapons for any smooth sounding reason, you can bet your being setup for a Police State....http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6117750.stm

Nicaraguans are voting in elections to decide whether former Marxist revolutionary leader Daniel Ortega should become the next president. The Sandinista leader has been leading his main challenger, the conservative Eduardo Montealegre, in opinion polls. Mr Ortega says he has changed from the leader who seized property from the wealthy during a 1979 revolution. The poll is being watched by the US, which is concerned that its former Cold War enemy could be returned to power. Mr Ortega's opponents say he would take the nation back to the days of the civil war with the Contra rebels. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6117704.stm

Almost all of the 80 victims of last week's air strike on an Islamic school in a tribal region were children or teenagers, according to the country's largest Islamic opposition party. The government has described the school, in the Bajur region bordering Afghanistan, as a terrorist training camp. But a list drawn up by Jamaat-e-Islami published Sunday in The News daily indicated that 13 of the victims were younger than 12. The youngest was 7. Almost all the others were teenage boys, and only the school's principal and two other men were over 20, the list showed. Jamaat-e-Islami revealed the ages of 79 of the 80 victims, but said it could not ascertain the age of one of the students. "We managed to compile a list comprising the ages and addresses of those who fell prey, to show the world there was no terrorist in the madrassa and there was no military," said Maulana Hanoor Rashid, a lawmaker from Bajur...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/05/world/main2153598.shtml?source=RSSattr=World_2153598

A plan to fingerprint elementary school students when they buy lunch has some parents worrying that Big Brother has come to the cafeteria.The Hope Elementary School District has notified parents that, beginning this month, students at Monte Vista, Vieja Valley and Hope elementary schools will press an index finger to a scanner before buying cafeteria food.The scan will call up the student's name and student ID, teacher's name and how much the student owes, since some receive government assistance for food.It is meant to speed up cafeteria lines."It raises sanitary issues, privacy issues — it is kind of Orwellian," said Tina Dabby, a parent of two at Monte Vista Elementary. "It just sounds kind of creepy."Currently, the information is written on paper and transferred to computer so reports can be compiled and sent to the state and federal governments, which reimburse school districts for the subsidized lunches served....http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,227593,00.html